ASID Foundation Trustee Norman Polsky Passed Away

September 22, 2010

Norman Polsky, Hon. FASID, known for his philanthropy, which included grants and gifts to the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation, passed away on September 2, 2010, at the age of 86.

The founder of Fixtures Furniture, Polsky and his wife Elaine established nine endowments for interior design organizations, including ASID, in 1982 in honor of their son Joel, who died unexpectedly. In 1990, they established the Polsky Family Supporting Foundation, which has nearly 50 endowments today and has been a major contributor to the ASID Foundation. He was made an Honorary Fellow of ASID in 1993.

“The ASID Foundation will forever be grateful for the generous support that Norman showed for the foundation and the entire interior design profession,” said Penny Bonda, FASID, ASID Foundation Chair. “Norman will be deeply missed throughout the design community and our thoughts are with his family.”

Polsky’s contributions to the ASID Foundation include the Joel Polsky Academic Achievement Award, an annual award that recognizes outstanding undergraduate or graduate students’ interior design research or thesis project; the Joel Polsky Prize, which honors academic contributions to the discipline of interior design through literature or visual communication; and a matching grant to bring the Joel Polsky-Fixtures Furniture/ASID Endowment Fund to $1 million by 2011 in order to support the profession’s social and environmental needs.